Friday 20th September 2013

Today we had an off day, first since we got here and I spent it in the driving license office of all places.

A few of us hired a car to go in to Hoedspruit to do various chores and enjoy a few luxuries such as pizza and an ice cold pint. But after four hours we were all very keen to return back to bush life.

In order to take the public out on safari (even on a private reserve) I need a professional drivers permit and for that I first need to get a South African drivers license.

The whole process is going to take months but after spending over two hours in the driving license authority I’m well on my way.

Local authority offices in South Africa are very tiresome and frustrating places. You’re constantly being told to queue up when you don’t need to and then not told to queue when you do need to. It doesn’t help your mood when you have staff sitting around doing nothing.

The lack of happiness at this point of the day has been captured in the photo on my official documentation for posterity. But there’s never a bad day in Africa.